Harry Reid, the Gift That Keeps On Giving

I have often wondered about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi: is it possible that the other Democrats in Congress are even dumber? This seems inconceivable, yet they elect Reid and Pelosi to be their leaders. Today Reid helped out the Republicans again.

What precipitated Reid’s breakdown was that the House Republicans have taken my advice (and that of many others, of course) and are now enacting a series of bills that fund portions of the federal government, like the national parks and the National Institutes of Health. This time, they are bringing the proposals up in a manner that requires only a majority, rather than a two-thirds vote, so they will pass. This puts the Democrats in a tight spot: if they vote down, for example, the bill to fund the national parks in the Senate–as they have pledged to do–it is officially their fault that the parks are closed.

Harry Reid was flummoxed to the point of incoherence when asked to respond to the Republicans’ move. If you haven’t already seen it, here he is:

“Why would we want to do that?” could be Reid’s epitaph. It was interesting, too, how Chuck Schumer–who passes for a smart guy among Senate Democrats!–weighs in to give Reid some guidance. And Reid plainly felt betrayed that a “mainstream” reporter would ask him a tough question.

Today has been a very bad day for the Democrats on the shutdown front. Who knows? This may turn out better for Republicans than I thought.